The Common Reading Experience 2012-2013

Author: Michael Pollan

Photo by Ken Light

Author, Michael Pollan

"Michael Pollan is the author of five books: Second Nature, A Place of My Own, The Botany of Desire, which received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best nonfiction work of 2001 and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon, and the national bestellers, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food.

A longtime contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley. His writing on food and agriculture has won numerous awards, including the Reuters/World Conservation Union Global Award in Environmental Journalism, the James Beard Award, and the Genesis Award from the American Humane Association."

According to Catherine Price's article, How Michael Pollan ruined my life, which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on May 7, 2006, Michael Pollan's favorite junk food is Cracker Jacks. Pollan says "... the prizes suck now because they're worried about kids choking. You just get like, paper."